General Session Writings 2008: What Connects You to the Writing Project?

Date: November 2008

Summary: Educators at the 2008 NWP Annual Meeting were asked to write about what connects them to the writing project. Is it a person? An event? A personal quest? Or perhaps something that's changed in their classroom or professional life? Here is a sample of their responses.

Technology Inspires My Students

First and foremost, a love of writing connects me to the writing project. How can I resist hanging out with a group of people who are passionate about writing and the teaching of writing, who support one another as they continue to grow as writers and teachers of writing? Second, because I love the fusion of technology and writing, I have connected to the writing project. Technology inspires my students and me to write in new ways, and the writing project has encompassed and supported me in that process. Third, almost against my uninterested will, the writing project has helped me to grow as a teacher-leader. THANK YOU!

A Teacher of Mathematics

My desire to see education inspire at all levels connects me to the project. My desire to see students be given the tools to succeed also connects me. As a teacher of mathematics, I see the real value of writing for information and writing to learn. It is only through writing that we can see the world more clearly, that we can "put pieces together." . . . I think that this is especially true in today's global culture when texts and emails can be sent anywhere and are preferred over phone and voice.

Something My District Can't Decide On

My connection is the people — the support system — the knowledge that there are others out there. The writing project gives me something that my district can't decide on — it has provided me with a vision of what I want my classroom to look like and the kind of teacher I want to be. There are obstacles, of course, but ultimately, I believe, it is the journey towards that vision that will prove to be successful.

I Found a Renewed Passion

I came to the Long Island Writing Project after my first year of teaching. I was a person who always knew I wanted to be a teacher. I asked for teachers books for Christmas. A blackboard hung in my bedroom. I subscribed to teachers magazines while still an elementary school student. I say all of this because you have to understand my passion for wanting to teach was so deeply rooted, yet after my first tear of teaching, I wasn't sure I was in the right profession. I was exhausted, lonely, and more than a little discouraged. I remembered when I was student teaching, a colleague told me about the Long Island Writing Project. Desperate for something to help me as a teacher, I applied to the summer institute. There, I found a renewed passion and a "professional home" — connections with other teachers who were dedicated, smart, and people I could grow with.

The Daunting Challenge

When I attended the Eastern Kentucky University Writing Project — it was the inaugural year — I was a fairly new middle school teacher in a small rural county with some of the lowest literacy levels in the nation. Discouraged, isolated, and struggling myself to reach my 180 students, most of them struggling just to survive. During the first four years of my teaching, three of my students were indicted for murder — all different cases.

The writing project helped me to connect what I knew and believed to what I was actually doing. I simply had not understood the importance of the word and how to frame it. In the daunting challenge of my own day-to-day efforts to survive, I started to see results. . . . I remember the day Ellen Lewis visited the site. I was presenting my demo. Afterwards, she tapped me on the shoulder and invited me to step up. Thank you Charles Whitaker, Ellen Lewis, and James Gray.

A Great River

Can one be "connected" to a great river . . .
NWP is a great, growing river
The more it flows
The more water it Attracts
And like a great river
            There is a sense of
            Important distant destinations,
            And power and subtle force
            Innate purposefulness
Yes, one can be attracted and connected to a great river . . .

Holocaust Educators Seminar

I was very fortunate this past summer to be selected to attend NWP's Holocaust Educators Seminar in New York City. Not only did it physically bring me back to my roots (I grew up there and left in 1970), but with the 20 other participants, I took a journey back to a most difficult and painful time and through our mutual grief and sadness we worked through paralyzing pain to come up with ways to present the Holocaust to our students so that they would not only learn but would be changed by that education. Giving meaning to otherwise meaningless suffering was life-changing for one. Ten out of the 21 participants are here today because we feel connected and wanted to see each other again.

I discovered that joining NWP enriched my teaching. I started to require more writing of my students in my math classes. I saw greater understanding happening.

Why Would a Math Teacher Join?

My connection to the NWP started out being my husband. He brought me in kicking and screaming (not really) about "why would a math teacher join a writing project?" He convinced me and I applied. I discovered that joining NWP enriched my teaching. I started to require more writing of my students in my math classes. I saw greater understanding happening.

Work on the Blackfeet Nation

My connection with NWP is, of course, relationships with people first. I came to my first summer institute as a teacher who was burning out — someone who wanted, with fear and trepidation, to try out writing because I thought I was perhaps finished with teaching. Well, I did begin to write, and I am still teaching, perhaps with more joy and enthusiasm than ever. And I am connecting in ever-broadening ways. But the most important work is my work on the Blackfeet nation — the work I do is the one where Montana Indian Education for all and literacy resides.

I Am Grateful and Joyful

I have been given the extraordinary opportunity to serve on the site leadership team for the Delaware Writing Project. From my work with other teachers and my team in our state, across the nation — and even internationally (once!) — I have learned how to teach, coach, write, and think more effectively and to share these new understandings. I am grateful and joyful.

I'm Not Just One Lonely Voice

It's the permission to speak from a knowledge base of proven, effective strategies. When I suggest to a new teacher she try something, or when I suggest to my principal we do something, I'm not just one lonely voice (albeit fanatical!) — I'm supported by years of research and practice and hundreds of teacher-consultants. (I guess it's sort of like having the Verizon network for writing.) In our own site, the writing project erases geographical distance and years of experience — we're all Indiana Teachers of Writing WP teacher-consultants, even though 130 miles may separate us. How would my teaching life would be different if I hadn't done the writing project in 1993? I think these 15 years would have been lonelier, frustrating. I might have even become bitter. I can't imagine NOT having met the people I now know and love. My life would have been emptier.

Found My Voice at the Age of 52

My connection to the writing project is as a co-director. That's the official connection. The deeper emotional connection is the realization that it is the place I found my voice at the age of 52. As a result, I subsequently wrote and published three books. I also became emboldened to give presentations and demonstrations along the East Coast. Finally, I have emotional connections to people who have become my second family. We have made memories, listened, laughed, supported, created, written, and helped each other, in some cases, heal. It is an experience that could never be replicated anywhere else. It has made all the difference.

Lifeboat

What connects you to the Writing Project?
Working for many years sinking deeper and deeper into program involvement, I watched the morale of my colleagues plummet. I, however, had a lifeboat to cling to, floating along on the current of support from my Redwood Writing Project colleagues. One of my professors in my masters program told me the way to get through dark educational times was to find a community like this and stay connected. She was right — through meetings and conferences I attended and was sent to, I was able to not only maintain my level of enthusiasm and commitment, but to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Slowly, I brought the Redwood Writing Project to my district and bringing the summer institute to my area. Slowly, slowly we are growing and feeding our souls, thanks to the writing project.

Last summer, I was a fellow in the Southern Colorado Writing Project at the urging of a fellow co-worker who stated boldly, ‘the Southern Colorado Writing Project changed my life.’ I thought she was exaggerating until I went through the SI and realized that it had indeed forever changed who I was as a teacher, a writer, and as a person in general.

Significant Struggles

What connects me to the NWP?
I have always been a writer of sorts; have used the written word to expose my inner word to expose my innermost thoughts/feelings/opinions/reactions. As a teacher (special educator) I witnessed significant struggles with the written word. Writing requests would send my students into a world of vacant thoughts /expressions. How do I reach these less than eager writers and make them feel successful? Writing was difficult for most of them — language limitations and limited opportunities to experts themselves didn't help. Along came the NWP — offering concrete demos that would inspire my students and produce pieces that they could be proud of. Thank you NWP!

I Choose to Reside in Hope

Last summer, I was a fellow in the Southern Colorado Writing Project at the urging of a fellow co-worker who stated boldly, "the Southern Colorado Writing Project changed my life." I thought she was exaggerating until I went through the summer institute and realized that it had indeed forever changed who I was as a teacher, a writer, and as a person in general. I was now finally able to state, "I am a writer," without feeling like others would see my statement as a lie. It was transforming to write with others who were as in love with the written word as I am.

This is my first annual meeting, and I have spent it overjoyed and recharged, as well as near tears with the overwhelming privilege to be a part of such an amazing organization. I've felt for the first time the power of a group whose passion outweighs their fears of dedication to such a tough spot in our nation currently. It is what will sustain me as I go back to the classroom to often long and tough days. Like Sharon Washington said, I choose to reside in hope, which is what NWP and my colleagues in the Southern Colorado Writing Project symbolize to me.